A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
两只侏儒山羊在波特兰上了公交车。车上有人全程低头看手机，什么都没看见。
Two Pygmy Goats Boarded a Portland City Bus. Some Passengers Never Looked Up From Their Phones.
About this story
Two Pygmy Goats Boarded a Portland City Bus. Some Passengers Never Looked Up From Their Phones. HSK 1 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 1 Chinese listening episode that runs about 1 minute. The full Mandarin script is shown with tap-for-pinyin and a line-by-line English translation, so you can listen and read at once — comprehensible input in the sense of Stephen Krashen's i+1 theory. It teaches 12 key vocabulary words such as 看见、打电话、上 and walks through 3 grammar patterns, each explained in English with examples. The same news story is retold at 4 difficulty levels — use the level selector above to find the version that is challenging but still understandable for you.
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原文Read the complete story in Chinese. Reveal pinyin and English only when you need them.
English transcript reference
In Portland there are two goats.
Two little goats.
Two very, very little goats.
They are not at home.
They are walking.
Someone saw them and made a phone call, asking people to come.
There is a bus stop there.
A bus came, and the doors opened.
People got on, and the goats got on too.
The goats followed the people onto the bus.
The doors closed.
There were people on the bus.
Some of them saw the goats.
Some of them did not.
They were looking at their phones.
They did not know there were two goats on the bus.
Later, the driver saw them.
He said: not allowed.
He and a few people on the bus asked the goats to get off.
The two goats got off the bus.
They walked away, off to another bus stop.
After that, nobody saw them.
Think about it: when you get on a bus, do you look around it?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇有的人看见了羊 = some of them saw the goats.
有人看见了，就打电话 = someone saw them and made a call.
人上车，羊也上车 = people got on, and the goats got on too.
请羊下车 = asked the goats to get off.
他们不知道 = they did not know.
在 Portland，有两只羊 = in Portland there are two goats.
两只羊 = two goats. The measure word for most animals.
那里有一个车站 = there is a bus stop there.
门开了 = the doors opened. 门关了 = the doors closed.
羊跟着人，上了车 = the goats followed the people on.
他们在看手机 = they were looking at their phones.
请羊下车 = asked the goats to get off. Polite, which is the joke.
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法有的……，有的……
"some… others…". The whole point of the story lives in this pair.
有的人看见了羊。
有的人没有看见。
跟着 + somebody + verb
"to follow somebody in doing X".
羊跟着人，上了车。
请 + somebody + verb
"to ask somebody to do X", politely. Used here on goats, which is the joke.
他和车里的几个人，请羊下车。
Proper Nouns
专有名词Sources
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